We just can’t stay silent about the Shields and Yarnell episode of The Muppet Show. We have a lot to say about 70s clown culture, mime weddings, and the sheer rage of hearing a mime speak in their act. But did they make ‘em laugh? Take a chance on us and listen! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/shields-yarnell This episode was released during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, shows like The Muppet Show wouldn't exist. You can...

Hold on to your neck seams and take a walk down River Road with us to board the ship called the Alpha Centauri…which is also bound for Alpha Centauri. It's very confusing. Let’s hope we don’t run into Dearth Nadir on the way, or any Klingons…or the most feared things in the galaxy, Muppet nipples. Back on Earth, we’ve got a prairie dog glee club (it’s really more of a show choir), bankruptcy barrels, and unexpected Harry Belafonte. (CW: racism, minstrelsy, Al Jolson)...

It’s our official Season 4 premiere! Oh yeah and the Muppets’, too. Some country roads will take us, inch by inch and row by row, to get campy about camping. We hope there are neither any al-i-ga-tors when we get there, not a Muppet version of The Last of Us. After all, man is made of dreams and bones, which might explain why goats are out to get us. Hopefully we survive and can crash on grandma’s feather bed, the exact dimensions of which are very confusing. https://muppeturgy.com/john-denver

From the glamorous Cocoanut Grove (where definitely no one was assassinated) in beautiful Hollywood (which definitely wasn’t a nightmare in 1979). it’s The Muppets Go Hollywood (which definitely won’t make you go “wow, TV in the 70s was...wow”). We watched this special promoting The Muppet Movie/grasping for ratings/beta testing Jim Henson’s idea for a live Muppet show so you don’t have to! There are definitely some high points: Rita Moreno, Dick Van Dyke, Christopher Reeve, Johnny Mathis,...

It’s our season finale, and we enjoy being a Muppet Show podcast with our own very special guest star, Danny Horn, of Tough Pigs, Muppet Wiki and Muppet Pictures. Yaaaaay! It’s a super-sized episode, because we needed extra time to go all in on queer theory, Miss Piggy as long-form drag performance, Muppet jobs vs. Muppet identities, dogs and cats and chickens living together, eyelid mechanisms, twoo wuv, Charlie’s Angels & jiggle television, Link’s nipples, and Rodgers & Hammerstein...

Hooray, hooray, come cavort with the Muppets as they put on a play! Anything we do we do it for Lynn Redgrave, even watching an episode that sometimes feels like getting tortured with thumb screws. Listen as we and take aim at egregious Lady Kluck erasure, noted Yoda stan Frank Sinatra, and the enduring nature of the Robin Hood myth (yeth?). https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/lynn-redgrave

Hit those happy trails, we’re going deep in the heart of Texas where the stars at night are big and bright () but there’s nothing but blue skies for the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans episode. Well…and some terrifying babies. And confusing horses. And a somewhat alarming amount of gunplay. Okay, they're a few tumbling tumbleweeds. Still, join us at home on the range with some adorable prairie dogs and a whole bunch of cows. (Herd of cows.) [Of course I’ve heard of...

Well dang us, this is a clucking good episode of The Muppet Show that charmed even the country music skeptics among us. Is it because Roger Miller is such a charmer, or because everyone is turning into a chicken? Why not both? Can a penguin rollerskate to Alabamy in a buffalo herd? Do they only wear hats in the summertime? Is cluckitis an STD? Will it make your weasel pop? Do wacka do listen for all these answers and much much more! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/roger-miller

Hey it’s a guest star we don’t have to explain! He’s on a TV show right now! And also, like, super duper famous. But what’s it like to go back 45 years to peak Rocky Balboa and watch Sylvester Stallone…fight a lion in a gladiator sketch? And fend off groupies including Scooter? And sing music hall while looking like the opening credits from Cheers? Because we’re us, we’ll also manage to talk about two Disney parks attractions, Animaniacs, show choir, and so much more. Join us in the ring! (Or...

However you pronounce it, Elke Sommer seems delightful, so it’s unfortunate that she’s overshadowed by the Bobby Benson Baby Band. Give those kids some animal crackers and row row row them out to sea! Backstage, Beau and Beaker hammer out their new relationship and the Pigs in Space explore Koozebane in sneakers and tights. https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/elke-sommer

It may be January but June is busting out all over and we’re huckin’ the bejeepers with Leslie Uggams and Big Bird (of Sesame Street, maybe you’ve heard of it). We have our quibbles (here we come again) but what a delight after a couple of episodes we weren’t super into to have not one but two guest stars who are charming and charismatic and seem to really want to be here! Does Gonzo try to have sex with Big Bird, who is technically supposed to be a six-year-old child? Sure! Does he do it...

Content warning: This episode of our podcast contains discussions of racist tropes and inappropriate depictions of races and cultures because this episode of The Muppet Show contains those things and, well, that was kind of Spike Milligan’s whole deal. It’s a small world after all, and he offended most of it, including Britain and America (I know you do!). There are arguably (and we will argue about it!) some salvageable bits here, like a trip to Disneyland by way of Oklahoma and Brazil, cute...

We’re so grateful to have very special guest Noah Diamond, who really appreciates Danny Kaye with us this week because we…did not. But you don’t come to us to treat beloved national treasures with kid gloves, you come to us for deep dives into the music theory of why “Inchworm” is creepy. Plus disco oddities, possible child refugees, amazing outerwear, formally dressed hippies, dancing fruit, and municipal codes written in Sharpie. Let the sunshine in…but don’t tell anyone, this is a podcast...

We love Lesley and/or Warren just the way she is, but is it the last dance for the Muppaphone? Is the Muppets’ take on Beauty and the Beast ahead of its time or a shreky misstep? Does Gonzo’s feat of lunatic daring succeed, or die like disco? Can Sam handle Dr. Teeth being curt and vile? Don’t get hit by dummo rays, listen to our latest episode and find out! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/lesley-ann-warren Special Announcement: We have merch! Get it in time for the holidays at...

Leggies and jenglefins, come let us tally the ways we love this episode! It would be a real (drum) battle to narrow it down, but so is life. This banana boat stops at Beetlejuice, Dreamgirls, and witnesses the birth of C-SPAN?? Turn your podcast player around and join us! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/harry-belafonte

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Starting this week, we’re going to be releasing new episodes every other Thursday. But we didn’t decide that until after we recorded, so you’ll hear us say “next week” at the end of the episode. And also at the end of the next episode, when it will actually be three weeks because of Thanksgiving. We’re sorry for lying to you but if you’re anything like us you’re probably behind on your podcasts anyway. ------------ We are just embryos with a long long way to go, but we know...

We’re back from a little break, ready and…somehow not at all rested. But that’s okay because James Coco brings us a fairly languid episode, despite all his talk of pace pace pace! Maybe his energy was low because of his severe diet. Fortunately there’s also some underwater delights from a failed skiffle outfit, a Droop sighting, short people, and Wayne and Scooter finally acknowledge their forbidden love. Oh, and puppet holes. https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/james-coco

Baby, it’s Raquel Welch! We’re pretty mixed on this episode, which has some wild gender politics along with some wild spiders, and the horniest Muppets we’ve seen to date. And what’s more troubling, Miss Piggy frying up bacon in a pan, or pondering Gonzo’s living situation? Only one of them is a W-O-P-I-G, and only one of us saw Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark three times, so put on your Bob Mackie cavewoman outfit and confide in us for a sexational episode of The Muppet Show....

Drink every time we say “beautiful” or “socialite” and maybe Miss Piggy will be able to successfully trick you into marriage! This episode is a mixed bag but we’re all quite taken with its beautiful socialite guest, our first look at a certain boomerang fish act (they’re coming back!), some nifty Muppet choreography, and a fun twist on a musical theatre classic. Plus bad Zoom backgrounds, a rare case of wanting Muppets to be more dead, Tetris, and sports!...

This week’s episode goes out to all the hatchlings and all the eggs. We go behind the Muppet candelabra for an in-depth look at the geography of the Muppet theater, Fletcher Bird’s possible side-hustles (as it were), new Popes, litigious homosexuality, incongruous cruising piers, and Gillian Lynne bird sex parties. And we swear, we’re still not a Little House on the Prairie podcast. https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/liberace

Muppvengers Assemble! Get ready for the most important summit of all time when worlds collide at a strangely rural train station. We’re joined this week by Matthew Gaydos and Sam Schultz from the Kermitment podcast to talk about the most awarded lady in country music, dogs with jobs, birth control, railroad logistics, improv games gone wrong, dancing hobos, fumigation, theatrical geography, and horrifying babies. Will we stay on track or get derailed as we take a sentimental journey through...

It’s a spooky, scary episode of The Muppet Show with demented, sick, degenerate, barbaric, naughty, doofy, moist weirdo Alice Cooper! Welcome to my nightmare: We’ll travel over the rainbow, all the way to Monkeypox, Tennessee, where school’s out forever, noted Joe Raposo stan Frank Sinatra’s recording history is disputed, and you and me can lounge on a bunch of pillows talking about Yip Harburg, Walter Cronkite, Star Trek, cave teeth, Satan, the Great Pumpkin, and Jesus Christ Superstar....

Jean Stapleton is just wild about Harry and we're just wild about...The Hanna-Barbera Happy Hour, Little House On The Prairie, Pocahontas 2, Murder She Wrote, You've Got Mail, and the Good Neighbor Policy? Look, it was the 70s, those things were all in the family. On the actual Muppet front, we've got creepy two headed twins, a pig throuple, Mexican jumping beans, waltzing walnuts, some melodrama involving Annie Sue, a truly delightful Fozzie duet, an inexplicable Crazy Harry invention, and...

Hello, Pearlie, it’s so nice to be up to one of our all-time favorite episodes of The Muppet Show! We’ve got the horse right here with more musical theatre shenanigans than you can shake a jousting lance from Camelot at, and a boy like that who’ll turn your avocado critic into guacamole for a picnic in the good old summertime, leaving no soul as a witness. Don’t be shellfish, put on your pantsuit and grab a plate of Duncan Hines and listen to our episode!...

The plot stickens, and you say ALLENTOWN?!? This episode has it all: Gilda Radner, Emily Litella, Bunsen Honeydew at his most patronizing, a truly horrifying Muppet Labs accident, Eskimo pigs, a penguin who’s going out there a youngster and coming back a star, Peter Friedman, the Milford Plaza (is the lullaby of all Broadway!), Gilbert and Sullivan, Aaron Sorkin, Kevin Kline’s mustache, Uncle Deadly at the Boom-Boom Room, Jerry Orbach’s eyes, AND the most famous Muppet of all: a 7-foot tall...